i'd rather be baking

Last weekend while taking care of all the random errands that just don’t happen during the week, we drove by an indoor farmer’s market that I’d seen a few times, but had never actually passed on a weekend when it’s open. I squealed a little and Ryan looked at me like I was crazy because he was on the phone. It happens.

As soon as he got off the phone I told him that we had to turn around. The idea of a farmer’s market in Utah in February is pretty thrilling, as it’s pretty much summer in the rest of the country before the real farmer’s market here gets going. There were only a few vendor inside, but a huge table of beautiful breads caught our eye immediately and we left with two loaves.

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Although I would certainly not consider myself a bread expert, I’ve baked enough loaves to feel like I basically know what I’m doing. But I have friends who are a bit fearful of yeast (I’m looking at you, Jami!), and it’s just a shame! Homemade bread is a wonderful thing, especially for those of us with a stand mixer. It can be fairly simple once you understand the process.

In continuation of my King Arthur Flour obsession, I was fairly thrilled to find last week that my local Walmart has started carrying their flours. I don’t know when this happened but it’s a pretty exciting development. I picked up a bag of their whole wheat flour and decided to try the recipe on the back of the bag – a recipe promising whole wheat bread from mixer to oven in 90 minutes. Sold.

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I’ve made cinnamon buns before, a couple of times. One time I made them with a bunch of lemons. Ryan’s the breakfast master in this house; the only time I really like to get to involved in actually “cooking” breakfast is when I’m actually baking it. Otherwise I’m a yogurt and cereal girl all the way.

I felt the need to make these cinnamon buns this week for several reasons. Ever since the end of our southern cooking-filled Christmas adventures, the return to our usual vegetable based diet has been a little uneasy. I’ll just leave it at that. An extra dose of fat and carbs seems to be helping. Plus it’s been a big week for us and just seemed deserving of a breakfast treat. And finally, I got an awesome King Arthur Flour cookbook for Christmas that just needed to be broken in a bit more.

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The bakery where I work is primarily a cupcake shop, but we do serve lunch as well. We buy our sandwich bread from another local baker, and it’s by far the best part of our sandwiches. Every time our delivery guy comes in with fresh bread, I can’t help but snack on an end piece.

The much-lauded bread is a great whole-grain blend that includes oatmeal and is wonderfully soft and moist thanks to the use of applesauce in the dough. Customers are sometimes uncertain about ordering a sandwich on oatmeal applesauce bread, but never cease to compliment the result. It’s a good one.

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As summer trudges onward, I find myself less and less hungry. What can I say? The heat is starting to get to me. Dinner is certainly the most affected and I’m beginning to feel sorry for Ryan because I just don’t feel like cooking. I find myself turning to salads and sandwiches as often as I can because it’s just too hot to cook a big meal.

It was with this mindset that I contemplated baking bread this week. It’s been awhile and I just didn’t feel like buying any, but the idea of a big, coarse loaf wasn’t nearly as appealing as it is with a chill in the air. I thought some light rolls might be a nice alternative and found just what I was looking for (not surprisingly) in Cooking Light.

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